A Step In The Right Direction
by DarkElements10
Summary: "Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice. From what I've tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate to say that for destruction ice is also great and would suffice." –Robert Frost. Cadence teaches Caitlin how to fight with her new powers. Not canon to Flash Fire/Crossfire. Caitlin/Cadence.


**A Step In The Right Direction  
**

 **By: Riley**

 **Summary** – "Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice. From what I've tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate to say that for destruction ice is also great and would suffice." –Robert Frost. Cadence teaches Caitlin how to fight with her new powers. Not canon to Flash Fire or Crossfire. Caitlin/Cadence.

* * *

Caitlin, as ever, was envious when Cadence teleported into the warehouse Oliver had converted into a training facility; for those with metahuman abilities or vigilante responsibilities, in a tank top and shorts. Did she always have to rub it in that because of her fire powers as a metahuman the cold never got to her? Especially when Caitlin was constantly bundled up in a large jacket, gloves, a scarf, spandex leggings, two pairs of socks and boots during the winter.

On a normal day she would wear half that and would become moderately annoyed that her own icy metahuman abilities affected her core body temperature to the point it did. In the winter it became much worse.

"So are you ready to get started?" Cadence asked, planting her hands on her hips. Her long hair fell around her cheeks like a halo. Though Caitlin knew with her outgoing and mischievous tendencies she was no angel.

"Can you give me a few more minutes to get warm first?" Caitlin mumbled, tucking her mouth down into her scarf. It wasn't cold in the training facility at all, but she still felt a chill. "I swear it's only thirty degrees in here."

"Actually, it's about 65 and it's not that cold," Cadence replied. "Besides, you need to get used to it because of your powers. Just don't expect me to give you some extra heat all the time or anything." She reached out her hand, a fireball appearing above it and Caitlin eagerly held her hands around the flame, feeling the heat absorb into her body like slipping into a warm bath; which she now had to make a habit of.

Her increasing water and heat bills were starting to drive her up the wall.

"Thanks Cade," Caitlin said with as much gratitude she could muster, the raucous chattering of her teeth slowly subsiding.

"You're welcome." The fire metahuman curled her fingers into her palm, snuffing out Caitlin's heat source. She didn't need it now, she was ready. Caitlin stood up and shed herself of her jacket and scarf to show her own workout clothes beneath. Then she tied her long hair back into a ponytail, moving across the room to make space for herself. "Do you remember what I taught you last time?"

Caitlin nodded. Her muscles still ached from the way she was thrown around the training facility last time they worked out. But she had to be ready. Now that Cisco was masquerading as Vibe and she having just recently came into her own ice powers she needed to know how to fight to help out Barry, Cadence, and Cadence's son, Brady. There were too many metahumans out there for them to take down themselves, especially if there was a tag-team effort needed.

"Good. Because I'm not going to go easy on you."

Caitlin sighed heavily, placing her hands on her hips. "I don't _need_ you to go easy on me. I'm not as weak as the rest of you guys think I am."

Even from the distance they stood apart from each other Caitlin could see her best friend's eyes flicker to an orange color as the fire metahumans' eyes flashed. "I don't think you're weak…I just don't think it's a very good idea to constantly wear 'professional attire' and high heels to work when you're constantly running away from people…and lagging behind." She snapped her fingers, trying to jog her memory. "It just makes you seem so…what's the word?"

Caitlin felt her blood boil and it burned with rage. More so than the time Captain Cold and Heat Wave had taken her hostage as pawn to lure Barry to them. She had been enraged then, enraged that they thought she would give up her friend's whereabouts so easily, that she was so weak she'd be broken so easily. And she had told them in no uncertain terms to, "Leave him alone!" And Mick could see the icy fire in her eyes as she said it. So why did everyone else have to tease her so much for caring about certain order?

Why did they have to make her feel that it was so bad to be…

"I'm _not_ uptight!" She cried and held out her hand, sending a blast of ice towards Cadence.

The seasoned metahuman leant out of the way of the blast and turned back to her, holding up her hands. "Relax, Cait. I was only joking. Geez, you need to _chill out_."

Caitlin felt her lips curl upwards as Cadence started to laugh. But she still had to put her in her place and the quickest way to do that was by sending a shower of snowflakes over her while simultaneously freezing her feet to the ground. It wasn't meant to be a physical attack more than to annoy her opponent a bit. "You couldn't resist, could you?"

"No." Cadence grinned as she shook her head. "You should've seen the look on your face. It was funny." This time she was met with a blast of ice directly in her face. It melted within seconds, revealing Cadence's irritated frown. Caitlin could see her eyes flash again; she was losing control on her anger. And with the means of fire manipulation control was very important. "I said it was _funny_ , not that it means your retaliation will ultimately create a threat to your life."

A tilt of her head made Caitlin's ponytail brush against the back of her shirt in a mocking swing. "If you can even touch me," she taunted slowly, lowering her voice.

Now Cadence looked amused. She started to walk to the side and Caitlin followed her movements, the two walking in a large circle. "Oh, you think you could take me?"

"I think I can kick your…butt," Caitlin said, faltering lamely. She started out, ready to swear at her, but found she couldn't let herself do so.

They continued to stalk each other. "I mean, you're the scientist here. I think even you can do basic math. You have your few months of being a meta compared to my seventeen years. You sure you still want to try?"

"Bring it on."

With that, Cadence's eyes shone a bright orange as she tapped into her full potential. Then she teleported. Caitlin could feel a sudden change in temperature behind her and twisted around, bringing up her hand blocking the blast of fire Cadence started to send her way.

 _Hisssss._

As their hands connected their elements negated each other, sending a white cloud throughout the room. Once it dissipated, Caitlin ducked out of the way of a kick Cadence sent towards her head. She rolled across the ground and popped up behind Cadence, elbowing her in the lower back. Cadence used the momentum of Caitlin's strike and launched herself towards the ground. Thinking she was going to teleport, Caitlin raced after her. Cadence flipped onto her hands as if moving forward into a front flip but sprung herself backwards over Caitlin so that she was behind her again. Caitlin skidded to a stop and turned around creating a spear of ice in her hand.

She twirled it in her hand and turned around, bringing it up just as Cadence punched towards Caitlin, a puff of fire shooting off her hands. She punched the ice, melting it, but Caitlin tightened her grip on the spear, repairing the porting that was melted. Cadence then punched forward with her other fist, and they repeated the same thing. Over and over Cadence punched towards Caitlin, each time taking a step forward so that Caitlin had to take a step back to keep her balance, bringing her ice spear up in a slashing motion to keep from getting hit. Clouds of steam erupted around them, rising the temperature of the room, making Caitlin sweat even further.

At one point she moved too slowly and a blast of fire shot by her face, singing her skin. Caitlin winced in pain and instinctively threw her speak, catching Cadence on the shoulder.

"Did that hurt?" Cadence asked, ignoring her wound as she fought to catch her breath.

Caitlin moved her fingers to the burn on her cheek; it was tiny and stung at the touch. But it wasn't bad. It wouldn't create any lasting scars. She shook her head. "No," Caitlin replied, fighting to catch her breath on her own. This training was certainly more intense than it had been before. "Doesn't hurt."

"Good." Cadence rested her palm against her wound and when she removed it, it stopped bleeding, though the flesh was still torn open. "Because I'm not done yet." She charged towards Caitlin once more.

Caitlin reacted quickly, bringing her fingers up to her mouth and blowing hard, sending her icy breath directly into Cadence's face. The fire metahuman closed her eyes and turned away, giving Caitlin the opportunity to freeze her feet to the floor. Cadence growled, struggling to free her legs, an orange glow rising from beneath the ice slabs that cemented her to the spot. But Caitlin continued to thicken the layers of ice around her feet. When Cadence then started to use flamethrowers from her hands, Caitlin froze those as well. Bringing her hand up to her forehead, Caitlin wiped the sweat away, flicking frozen droplets off her finger tips.

"How's that?" She asked between gasps of air. The excessive use of her powers was starting to tire her out. As it was, she was already feeling lightheaded.

"Pretty good," Cadence replied.

With a cry of effort, the blocks of ice around her hands immediately shattered, weak against the sudden blast of extreme heat that came from Cadence's hands. Then she did the same with her feet and used the burst of flame to charge herself forward. She grabbed Caitlin's arms and pinned them behind her back, holding her arm around her neck, pressing hard. Caitlin gasped as she felt Cadence's warm skin against her throat, feeling an involuntary shiver run through her as her arm glided across her skin due to her sweat.

"But not good enough."

Cadence's harsh whisper into Caitlin's ear sent warm air across her neck, earlobe, and the side of her cheek. Then she was roughly shoved away. Stumbling, Caitlin tried to turn herself around to protect herself, but Cadence did a round-off front flip and leapt upwards, wrapping her legs around Caitlin's shoulders. Then she twisted herself around, which Caitlin was still unsure how she did it, and pulled her weight backwards, bringing Caitlin face towards the ground. Next thing she knew the world tilted and turned and she was on her back with Cadence straddling her waist and pinned her shoulders to the ground. Her face was twisted up into a nearly animalistic snarl, eyes blazing orange.

"Okay," Caitlin said quickly. She could feel the heat on her shoulders continue to increase. It was starting to burn. "Okay. Cade. You can stop now."

As the seconds passed, Caitlin could see Cadence regain control and her eyes returned to their normal color. Then she smiled and removed a hand from Caitlin's shoulder, smoothing her hair back from her face. She didn't appear to care they were still lying on the floor.

"Sorry," she apologized. "I guess I got a bit carried away."

"That's alright," Caitlin replied. Her eyes shifted for a moment. "How'd I do?"

"You did a great job!" Cadence backed away, removing her weight from pinning Caitlin to the floor. "You've definitely improved since the last time we trained. You still need to hold control; you got tired when using your powers too quickly. It'll be like that for a while, but you're definitely improving."

"And?" Caitlin prompted. She got up off the floor and looked down at her shorter friend, who looked up at her in confusion. Then her face cleared and she held up her hands in peace.

" _And_ you're not uptight." She rubbed her shoulders. "Especially not after that fight."

A beam graced Caitlin's features and she brushed her bangs out of her eyes. It wouldn't be much longer until she could join the field with the rest of her friends and help out. To do something more than just sit back in the cortex and give suggestions of what to do, waiting to patch someone up when they got back. Now all she needed to do was get used to the nickname Cisco gave her—Killer Frost.

"Thanks again for helping me out, Cade."

"Of course, Cait."

The girls hugged. Caitlin squeezed her friend then backed away so that her forehead rested against the fire metahuman's. She brought her hands up to Cadence's cheeks then and tilted her head down. Cadence raised her chin and their lips pressed together. A surprised sigh escaped Caitlin's lips before their mouths came together again. Her heart beat in her chest as the kiss shifted back and forth, taking on the properties of their powers, warm then cool, warm then cool. Cool to the point a light sheen of frost appeared on their lips, momentarily sticking them together, then warm so that the frost melted and their lips smoothed and glided over each other.

Finally, the kiss ended and Caitlin gently bit her lower lip, pulling her head back. Her eyes were closed for a moment, taking in her best friend's warmth. She blushed and opened her eyes.

"Cait," Cadence whispered, her eyes fluttering open.

Caitlin felt her blush deepen as she looked into Cadence's eyes. "Yeah?" she whispered in reply.

Cadence smiled. "Your hands are stuck to my face."

Blinking in surprise, Caitlin tried to lift her hands away from Cadence's skin and that her palms were indeed stuck to the other's warm skin. "Sorry," she apologized quickly. "I guess I subconsciously tried to take your heat or something." She could feel Cadence start to shiver underneath her grasp.

"Well, if I had to be frozen to something then I'm glad it's to you." Caitlin's smile widened then Cadence winced. "But could you maybe work on it next time? Because this is really starting to hurt."

Caitlin laughed.

* * *

 **THE END**


End file.
